The invention relates to a sliding roof for automobiles with a sliding top sealing off a roof aperture in its closed position, which sliding top can be selectively lowered from this position by adjustment of an adjusting crosspiece guided in lateral guide rails and connected to the sliding top by way of swing-out levers and can be pushed underneath a fixed, rearward roof section, or can be swung out in an upward direction with its rear end above the fixed roof section; and with a mounting plate arranged at each of the lateral guide rails for a guide pin cooperating with a slotted crank guide of the respective swing-out lever.
Such a sliding roof is conventional (German Pat. No. 2,016,492). In such sliding roofs, constraining or guide plates have been additionally provided which are adjustable in the longitudinal direction of the lateral guide rails; during closing of the sliding top, a guide member fixedly joined to the sliding top contacts these guide plates to direct the closed slides top into its forward end position. The adjustment of the guide plates, absolutely necessary for the compensation of manufacturing tolerances, could be executed heretofore only by opening the sliding top and adjusting the guide plate visually and fixing the plate in this position. If it was then found after closing of the top that the position of the guide plate was not at an optimum, the adjusting process had to be repeated once and in some cases several times.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to construct a sliding roof of the aforementioned type so that an adjustment of the plates is possible with the sliding top being closed.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment disclosed herein, this object has been attained by providing that the guide pin mounting plate and the plate carry detent elements which cooperate with each other, by means of which the guide plate, after adjustment, can be at least temporarily retained in its respective position.
If, in a sliding roof having this construction, the adjustment of the guide plates is effected with the sliding top being closed, the detent elements retain the guide plates in the adjusted position during the subsequent opening of the sliding top, to finally fix the guide plates in the intended position. In this way, the adjustment of the guide plates can take place substantially faster and more accurately than heretofore.
To provide the detent elements, a corrugation cooperating with one or several lugs of the guide plate can be arranged advantageously on the underside of the guide pin mounting plate.
Relatively high adjusting forces are required, under certain circumstances, for the adjustment of the guide plates. To be able to provide such forces without effort, another feature of the preferred embodiment of the invention is to provide an abutment on the guide pin mounting plate for a tool to adjust the plate when the sliding top is closed.
To securely detain the detent elements of the guide pin mounting plate and the guide plate until final fixation in the intended position, the guide pin mounting plate is preferably connected to the associated lateral guide rail in a fixed manner in the zone of one of its ends and in a releasable fashion in the zone of its other end. The fixed connection takes care of a certain initial holding force for the detent elements. The final fixation of the guide plate then takes place by tightening the releasable connection of the guide pin mounting plate.
These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, a single embodiment in accordance with the present invention.